Hi there,
I am debating if using ZFS vs. Softraid vs. APFS+backup on my incoming m1 iMac + external 4 bay enclosure [1] + 4 x 8TB 870 QVO SSD, should I use ZFS (raid z1) or the softraid.com (raid 5), or APFS (raid 0) + backup to compensate no parity.
Summary:
I would love ZFS, but very uncertain on if ZFS on m1 is ready for day to day use on important data.
softraid and APFS does not support checksum is a concern.
Any thoughts? Thank you in advance!
My thinking are (please correct me if I am wrong):
ZFS on macOS
pros:
- very advanced filesystem
- easy to backup with snapshots? I never used before. But do intend to setup backup to my existing ZFS raid.
EDIT: just heard of ZFS replication today, seems the best solution to backup between two ZFS dataset. Question: is ZFS replication / snapshot stable on ZFS on intel macOS / m1 macOS?
cons:
- smaller dev team, but really appreciate your effort!
- not sure about the performance when running ZFS with JBOD mode for external enclosure. Would be great if someone could shine some light here.
softraid
pros:
- a company supporting it. E.g., m1 support came relatively fast
cons:
- old technology
- no checksum
APFS+backup
pros:
- native Apple support, I would hope the raid0 and implementation is not buggy, does not have problem after wake up from sleep
cons:
- no parity, compensated by the fact that I am using SSD, plus there is backup
- no checksum
[1] https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... r_bay.html